Question Destiny
by Laryna6
Summary: Gennai had warned them of the rebirth of an old enemy, but the Digidestined were still eager to return to the Digital World and see their friends again. Even if it was impossible to win, they could never have abandoned their partners to the nonexistent mercy of Machinedramon. And hey, could be worse, could be Myotismon.
1. Always Be There For You

_The word destined is rather like purity: Pure_ what _? Chosen for_ what?

 _I know I'm going to regret this, but I have yielded the temptation to post the first couple chapters of a fic as a standalone._

 _The overall fic is a For Want Of A Nail AU of the first Wonderswan game,_ Anode/Cathode Tamer _, which takes place after_ Digimon Adventure _but before Gennai used up the Digidestined's crests freeing the Sovereign, so they could still reach Ultimate and Mega. What I'm posting now, possibly as a standalone, is an attempt at a prologue to that game, covering the Digidestined's return to the Digital World and such and such. Ryo won't be getting dragged into part one of his four-game-long Break The Cutie until the third chapter at the earliest, should I ever post it. Probably more like the fourth chapter, since Agumon..._

 _For now, I hope you enjoy the fluff. And worldbuilding, because I like my worldbuilding and since the magic in Adventure is magi_ tech...

 _It's been a few years since I've seen_ Digimon Adventure _and_ 02 _: I'm in the process of marathoning them for fact and characterization checking now that I've finished_ Tamers, _but it's more than a hundred episodes. I will be editing (for insufficient Gatomon at the absolute minimum), so please let me know if you spot any errors/if anyone's OOC (for post-Adventure pre-02, since these characters have character development and so IC for the beginning of Adventure would be OOC here), and especially let me know if you're willing to pre-read chapters and let me know what's wrong with them. The larger plot is currently on hold until I can write Gatomon, since she's one of the main characters along with Izzy and I currently have the best memories of how she acted in 02 when I need her Adventure characterization, especially when she'll be falling back on Myotismon-handling skills._

 _I really do recommend looking up the Wonderswan games and reading the translations: Digimon 02 makes_ so much more sense now _. An incredible amount of what happened in there happened for a reason. If the Adventure Digidestined and Wormmon had ripple-proof memories, Digimon 02 would also be about three episodes long.(Veemon may have gotten blown up and lost all his memories when he returned to the egg, and Ken did get a flash of what happened, probably because of the Dark Spore)._

 _The mind control tech in the games doesn't have a visible indicator like the Dark Rings/Spirals, which makes sense since the Digimon Emperor is a watered-down version of the person who made the mind control device that's inside_ him _. Not having a visible indicator of who was being controlled would make spying easier, and make it impossible to cure victims by just breaking the ring - you'd be stuck without a Digidestined with a Digivice._

 _I needed a reason for why the enemy let the Digidestined live, though, when Machinedramon tried to Just Shoot Him in_ Digimon Adventure. _The fact he didn't stick mind control tech into them implies he didn't have stuff that could work on Digidestined... until after he captured Digidestined that he could have experimented on. The main reason, though, is that I can have some scenes with a visible control object that I couldn't have without one, so even though this is a prologue, it is still a (hopefully slight) AU even at this point, since the games don't really have room for the Adventure cast to be themselves and I want to do an ensemble piece._

* * *

"HiMrs. Inoue!" she heard a breathless voice gasp out, dumping a shopping basket full of candy on the check-out counter.

"Hello, Tai," she said, starting to scan it even though the amount made her raise an eyebrow. "Are your parents letting you buy all this?"

"It's for the New Years' Party, I've got to run to make it in time," Tai said, words coming almost as fast. "Can I bag it?" So it would go faster.

"Of course," she said, hands moving quickly as Tai dumped the candy bars and bags of chips into bags. "The total is 38-"

Tai dumped a mass of bills and coins on the counter. "It's forty thousand yen, keep the change!" he told her, and grabbed the bags, making a dash for the door.

She could have told one of her daughters to stop him, but everyone knew the Kamiya boy was responsible – most of the kids in the neighborhood idolized him – and if the amount was wrong, she knew where he lived. She could have Yolei go by later with the change.

* * *

Time was passing at a rate of one day in the digital world for one minute in the human world. Destroying Apocalymon had set Digital World time equivalent to human world time, but if Machinedramon's new digivolution could do the same thing, how powerful was it relative to Apocalymon?

Later. Not enough data right now.

Two months per hour. Under four years per day, but that was irrelevant. Everyone would want to hurry, so he could safely assume that the arrival window would be between five and ten minutes, with most of them aiming more for five so whoever _did_ go through in only five minutes wouldn't be there alone – especially Matt – and Joe probably taking as much as ten to make sure he had the right supplies, because even now he wouldn't think he'd be that useful without the supplies.

Izzy wasn't all that useful without supplies either, but the important thing was: His Pineapple laptop. Also a few changes of clothes, because laundry was a nightmare in the digital world. Should he try to find laundry soap? No, they could count on Mimi for a bottle of that.

He ran to his dresser and grabbed clothes, putting them in his laptop bag around his laptop as extra padding. What else, what else… He couldn't weigh himself down too much, he wasn't an athlete like Matt, Tai and Sora and he had the laptop to manage.

Matt was the one who always wanted to go out camping with TK, if they were lucky he might even have a bag ready. TK would be one of the people to take a little extra time so he could tell Matt that see, he was prepared, and Matt shouldn't worry about him.

Tai… had probably stuffed a backpack full of clothes and dived in, Izzy realized with a sigh, scanning his room. Headphones, right, so it would be harder for people to hear them if he had a conversation with Gennai or one of the others in a Hiding Tree or an evil Digimon's base.

Actually no, not with his sister there. Tai and Kari might be late because they would want to check over each others' preparations.

"Ugh, what else should I get?" he wondered, frustrated. "All that time in the digital world thinking of the stuff I wished we had, and now my mind's blanking?"

Kitchen, right. They'd have to forage while they were there – or no, Gennai said he was in a _city,_ maybe they could even have regular cooked meals while they were fighting – but energy bars and things.

Oh, good, Mom was there. "Mom, do we have any candy?" he asked her, hopeful, even though they really didn't keep candy in the house.

She looked up at him, and he saw her notice that he was in a rush. "There's a box of chocolates your father got me…" Why?

Izzy clasped his hands together and gave her a pleading look. "Can I have it? I just got called into the Digital world, and I don't have time to run to the store."

"For Tentomon?" she asked him, and when he nodded, said, "Of course, Izzy." She got up, walking towards one of the cupboards. "Anything else?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "It won't be like last time, we'll have a place to stay while we're there, in a city." That wasn't Machinedramon's. He knew from Gatomon's stories of when she was looking for Kari that there used to be cities in the Digital World, that there used to be _trade_ instead of caravans and cities that weren't hidden just begging for evil Digimon to loot them.

She handed him the red foil-wrapped box with its elegant ribbon. "I'm sure you packed extra socks…"

Izzy nodded. "I definitely remembered how valuable extra socks were," he said, and wrapped his arms around her, one hand still holding the box of chocolates. "I can't leave the others waiting for days, I have to hurry, I should be back before it gets dark! Love you Mom, and tell Dad I love him too!"

Box of chocolates tucked under his arm, bag over his shoulder, digivice held out to the computer and _go_.

* * *

Matt glared at his bag. He should have known better from Joe, that sometimes it was actually inconvenient to be too thoroughly prepared.

If he got there too fast and TK found out how long he'd been waiting, it would tick off his brother, so here he was leaning against the wall in the kitchen, anchored to it by the phone cord. "Come on, pick up pick up," he chanted, even though he was _trying_ to kill time here. "This is Matt, can you get my dad?"

And now he was on _hold_ , but fortunately not for long.

"Son?" his father said, sounding worried. He knew Matt wouldn't call him at work unless it was important.

"Digital world. Time's gotten messed up again, so I shouldn't be gone too long." Even if it took months like last time. Gennai said they were only dealing with one enemy they'd beaten before, but that might just be the one enemy Gennai knew about.

Well, if there was a new threat, it was a better idea to call them in early to nip the thing in the bud. Andromon and the others should have a few days to find more out by the time everyone got there.

There was a pause, and Matt begrudged every second even though he knew he shouldn't. "Do you want to take my overnight bag?"

"I've got my camping bag still packed, remember?"

"Are you sure you don't want to take it, just to…"

"I'm not going to be there long enough to need to shave!" They were in the Digital world for months and hadn't aged before. "We'll have a house to stay at, we'll have soap and stuff. I'll see you when you get back from the New Year's Eve party." He paused. "I am stealing all your energy drinks, though."

"Matt, you shouldn't have those at your age!"

Matt hung up on him. Like he cared about stunting his growth when he would probably need to keep watch at some point.

* * *

Tai collapsed after he got back in the door, bracing his hand against the wall to take a couple of breaths.

"I knew it," Kari said, sitting by the computer looking pleased with herself. Both of them had bags already packed.

Tai nodded. "Good going, Kari." He'd known to take it seriously when Kari got that feeling, and really it wasn't that much work to pack stuff and it wouldn't have taken that long to unpack it again if it was a false alarm. He'd wondered if he should call the others about it, but from the way Kari looked down at her feet, she hadn't been _that_ certain of what she was sensing, at least not enough to want to either panic everyone or get their hopes up, especially when Sora and Mimi had big New Years' things to get to. "Millenniummon, huh? I _thought_ we were going to have to fight the Y2K bug." He held up the convenience store bags triumphantly. "Thank goodness for all that soccer."

"You got back fast! Just remember, most of that's my allowance," she warned him, taking some of the plastic bags from him and picking up her bag as Tai stumbled over to the computer to pick up his own.

"There wasn't a line. I guess most people thought the stores would be packed on New Years' Eve too," Tai said. "Ready to go?"

Kari nodded. "Um-hum!"

* * *

"Ok, I've got my helmet, and cookies for Patamon, and…" TK looked through his school bag. "Oh, I hope Matt didn't tell Dad, I'm going to kill him if he did." His Mom was going to be stuck at the office New Year's party, he should be back way before she knew it, but even though their parents were divorced if Matt told Dad where he was going, Dad would get worried, and want to ask Mom to be sure TK had packed and stuff.

It wasn't that Mom wouldn't let him go, he just didn't want her to be worried until he got back and he would show her he was fine, and tell her that Patamon was ok too.

If Patamon got hurt again… What if Patamon got hurt before TK could even get there?

It was a really good idea of Matt's to have bags ready to go camping together all the time, just in case they ever got to go back and see Patamon!

They were supposed to get ready first, but he didn't want to wait anymore!

TK landed on the lawn in front of a house. "Wow," he exclaimed, looking around. "There really is a city!" With Digimon walking around instead of running from cover to cover, although a lot of them stopped to look at him.

TK waved.

Behind him, the door to the house opened. "Yes, someone's finally here. TK!" Agumon waved at him. "It's TK!"

"TK!" Patamon darted over Agumon's head.

TK dropped the bags and laughed when he caught Patamon, hugging him to his chest. "I missed you, and I brought cookies!"

The others poured out.

"How's Matt?" Gabumon asked.

"Do you know when the others are coming?" Tentomon wondered.

"We've been waiting a really long time!"

"Now, now," Gennai said, following them out of the house slowly, with his cane. "It's only been two minutes and seventeen seconds in the human world."

"Am I really here first?" TK wanted to know. Maybe it was irresponsible not to really do anything but dump the cookies into a bag and grab a couple of things, but it meant he got to spend more time with Patamon! "Can we tell whoever comes next that I just got here, so Matt doesn't find out I was here on my own for too long?" There was a difference between not wanting Matt to be overprotective and making him worry.

"You're not on your own!" Patamon said, wiggling in TK's hands to try to climb up on top of TK's helmet. TK lifted him up.

"Well, since you're here now, would someone mind taking his bags inside, and perhaps showing him around File City?" Gennai asked.

"I'll take those," said Gabumon.

"No way, I can carry my own bags," TK said, not insulted but excited. "See?" he said, although he only lifted the bags up for a second and hoped they didn't ask how long he could hold them up. "I want to see everything and meet everybody!"

Gennai chuckled. "Well, that will certainly give you something to do until the others arrive."

Light appeared over the lawn. "What's that?" TK wondered.

"Someone else is coming through. It takes a couple of seconds in the real world between the digiport activating and the arrival of the Digidestined, so they'll be here in a little under an hour," Gennai told him.

"Oh, I bet it's Tai! Or Sora," since Tai would probably bug Kari to make sure she packed enough. "Maybe Matt," but TK didn't think so.

"Sage Gennai, is this really one of the Digidestined?" asked a Penguinmon.

"He is! It's TK! I saw him at Primary Village!" insisted an Elecmon, running up behind him.

By the time someone dropped out of the light, a lot of other Digimon had gathered around to meet TK. Biyomon and Agumon had to spread out a blanket and warn people not to step on it so whoever was coming through didn't end up falling on top of them.

A familiar yelp let them both know that the person had finally gotten here and exactly who they were before they saw them.

Joe landed on top of his bags, and when he stood up TK saw another messenger bag slung around his shoulder.

"I'm sorry I'm late! I had to dig the bags out of my closet because my brothers piled a bunch of stuff they didn't want Dad to find in there," Joe told them. "I think I broke Shuu's guitar, he's going to kill me…"

'You're the second person here!" TK told him cheerfully. "And I really did just get here a couple seconds ago!" Real world time, anyway.

"I knew you had it in you, Joe!"

"Gomamon!" Joe held his arms out for his partner, grinning. "I brought a lot of stuff you liked with my allowance and hid it in the bags in my closet because we're not supposed to have junk food, I hope I didn't crush everything and ruin it when I landed on the bags…"

* * *

Horns resounded through the city. "Mimi!" called the Geckomon. "It's Queen Mimi! She's finally here!"

Mimi waved, setting down her large shoulder bag and another mesh bag filled with bottles and sponges and other mysterious things. "It's so good to see that you're alright! Did everyone who died hatch in Primary Village yet, or is anyone still missing?"

"The evil Digimon kidnapped some of us, but we sent a messenger to Gennai and he ssaid that he'd summoned you, Queen Mimi!" said the leader of the Geckomon. "So we came here to wait for you."

"Why those…" Mimi paused. "Palmon?" she called. "Was that your voice, Palmon?" It was hard to hear over the horns and cheering Geckomon and Otamamon.

"Out of the way, make way for Queen Mimi's Chosen Protector!"

"Mimi!" Palmon said, holding out Mimi's hat. "I still have your hat!"

"Oh, Palmon." Mimi knelt, shaking her head and taking the hat and putting it aside on the ground to take Palmons hands. "That old thing?" She wiped at her eyes with the back of her forearm. She opened up her bag, and took out an ornate box. "Here you go, Palmon, I brought you a much nicer hat. I, I tried to remember exactly what shade of green you were."

Mimi sniffled as Palmon untied the ribbon around the box.

"It's so pretty, Mimi!" Palmon said, putting the hat on immediately.

"Oh, Palmon!" Mimi cried and lunged forward, still on her knees, to wrap her arms around Palmon. "I have so much to tell you!" She felt around in the mesh bag for a bottle and shoved it into Palmon's hands. "I found a liquid fertilizer _specially_ formulated for small palm trees, so if we end up in a desert again or the evil Digimon make the land barren around their fortresses I can apply it to your roots and you won't end up all malnourished and wilted, you poor thing. I found out that Togemon is an Easter Lily Cactus, and I have some fertilizer for them and for Lilymon too, just in case."

Joe stared. "I brought junk food and _Mimi_ brought vitamins?" He blinked. "Vitamins, I knew I was forgetting something. I should have brought vitamins, we never knew what we'd be eating next or when, and that's a varied diet but we really couldn't count on it containing proper nutrition…"

Gomamon reached up to pat his side. "Relax, Joe."

* * *

Izzy showed up in the morning three days later, to much less fanfare. After three of them, Gennai was able to figure out how long it would take them to appear after the light appeared in the sky, so he was able to gather the Digimon and other Digidestined at the proper time. Agumon went to fetch Joe from the clinic he'd set up for the wounded Digimon that were arriving at File City. It was harder to tell where Mimi would be from one hour to the next, since the refugee groups didn't have any clear leadership before she got there and took charge of the Geckomon, and someone needed to organize getting them under shelter, so Biyomon, Tentomon and Patamon were sent to fly around looking for her.

Gennai had asked the Digimon to store a lot of food in File City, and there were some powerful Digimon there to protect it when the City had been built to protect Primary Village in the first place. It did have temporary housing, but it was there for Digimon who were just moving out of Primary Village to find their places in the outside world. It just wasn't large enough to hold rookies, much less Champions.

Izzy exclaimed with delight when he saw Tentomon and handed his partner a box of chocolates, but after greeting the others he asked Gennai, "So, we're dealing with Machinedramon?"

"Millenniummon," Gennai corrected him. "Apocalymon warped time just by existing, and it made him stronger because the passage of time meant more and more Digimon could die alone and in despair, granting him more power. Machinedramon combining with Kimeramon gave Millenniummon the power to control time. By accelerating it, he made it harder to gather Digidestined to protect the Digital World. I made my message to you as brief as possible, but even if I've identified several potential Digidestined since the battle against Apocalymon, weeks will pass here before I could possibly bring any of them to assist you, and I've needed to focus my energies on learning more about our enemy."

"Well, I can definitely help you with that," Izzy said, putting a hand on his laptop bag. "So doing this to time _is_ Millenniummon's power, he's not powerful enough that this is just a side effect? That's good."

"Other Digidestined?" Mimi asked. "You mean there are more of us out there?"

Gennai sighed, and bowed his head. "We never meant to burden only the eight of you children with the fate of the entire Digital world. I know that the Order's other temples gathered information on other candidates and prepared partners and digivices to aid them, but then the Dark Masters all but exterminated us. When I took the risk of returning to the Temple I served, by some miracle I was able to retrieve some data from the wreckage, but you were the only Digidestined I had any clue of how to find, and it still took decades in the Digital World for me to study your partners in their digieggs and figure out how to use their bonds to you to find you and bring you to the Digital World."

"Well,"Joe said, "You couldn't exactly wait long enough for us to become adults, not when a day in our world was that long in your world. The Dark Masters already had too much of a head start."

"We definitely can't let Machinedramon-"

"Or the Digimon formerly known as Machinedramon," Mimi interrupted Izzy.

"Right, we can't let _Millenniummon_ get too much time to work with. If he can build one of those factories, he can start churning out brainwashed ultimates again." Izzy looked around at the city and winced. "They'll bomb this place to the ground."

"There are sanctuaries hidden in the nearby mountains," Gennai assured him.

"That's a relief-Wait, then why are we having to build houses for people?" Mimi demanded.

"Spies," Joe said darkly.

Gennai nodded. "Leomon and the others are searching our new arrivals for those Black Rings, but Millenniummon might have one of his loyal underlings damaged enough to de-digivolve into a weaker, less suspicious form and send them in to scout. We can't turn away Digimon in need simply because they could potentially digivolve into a dark or dragon-type Digimon."

"What about virus types?" Izzy asked.

"One of the Digimon Sovereign, the guardian gods of the Digital world, is a virus type," Gennai said, looking very disappointed with Izzy. "One third of all Digimon are. I am concerned that Millenniummon might send dragon types as spies because they were Machinedramon's preferred servants, and I am concerned that dark Digimon might choose to serve evil because they feel they have no alternative. The scars left by the Dark Masters, Myotismon and others still linger, and many young Digimon are treated with contempt or suspicion almost as soon as they hatch. We've had to place the Zurumon under guard for their own protection, even though that feeds the belief that Zurumon are so evil even as babies that they need to be guarded for the protection of _other_ Digimon. That is terrible enough, but if one of the _Chosen Children_ expresses a prejudice against all virus-types? And what of your partner? Most insect Digimon are virus-type. Should we drive other Tentomon out into the wilderness to be abducted by Megadramon patrols?"

Izzy's eyes widened. "Right," he said. "So it's coincidence that none of our partners are virus-type?"

"I would certainly hope so," Gennai sighed. "I was a Temple Guard, not a very highly-ranked member of the Order of Azulongmon. I am aware that as the threat of the Dark Masters grew, some of our brothers…" He pressed his lips together in disapproval. "I'm not surprised it was the temples that took 'reasonable precautions' that were the first to be found and destroyed,'" he said dryly. "Because our temple didn't attack innocent Digimon and turn the survivors into our enemies, we were the last remaining temple for eight years before Piedmon found us." Eight years knowing they were the last hope remaining in a hostile world, while the Digidestined… what? Went to school while people died? "I understand why they were afraid. We artificial humans are the weakest beings in the Digital World. Even a baby Digimon can hope to evolve. That's why I'm afraid I must rely on your strength once again, Chosen Children." Gennai bowed.

Mimi tapped her foot. "Izzy, aren't Otamamon and Geckomon virus-types?"

"But what about dark Digimon, like Devimon?" TK asked. "Even Demidevimon was a bad guy!"

"The worst!" Patamon agreed.

Gennai's shoulders somehow drooped even further. "Judging from the ratio of eggs in Primary Village after your victory over Apocalymon, there were more dark Digimon in Apocalymon than Digimon of the other types. If a Digimon might be killed over and over, without ever having the chance to live long enough to grow up and Digivolve, just because of the form they took? When people looked at them with suspicion, when it was harder for them to make friends, then is it any wonder that so many of those Digimon despaired and were devoured by Apocalymon?" He shook his head. "I have been afraid since you left that history would repeat itself. When time was reordered, at first I feared that it was Apocalymon reborn. That enough of the Digimon you restored had experienced heartbreak to revive him in only the handful of months since you left our world." He looked up at TK. "They were saved because the Chosen Children restored their hope. If even the Child of Hope can't believe in them, if you refuse to give them your Crest's blessing, then what chance do they have?"

* * *

"Hey," Matt said, hand on Gabumon's shoulder, and looked past them to see the barriers the Mayor of File City had put up to keep the Chosen Children from getting swarmed. "That's a lot of Digimon. So everyone really could come back after we beat Apocalymon?"

Gabumon nodded. "Um-hum."

"That's a relief."

"Hi, Matt!" TK smiled at him and Matt looked a little relieved.

"Did I miss anything important?" he asked TK.

"Kari, Tai and Sora aren't here yet," TK told him. "So we're helping the Digimon until they get here."

"Kari's name first, huh?" Matt grinned at his little brother teasingly.

"Matt!"

Matt had to be a little relieved, Joe thought. Not that TK might have a crush, but that TK wasn't focused on _Tai_ , when TK had wanted Tai as his big brother for awhile there. What was sad was that Tai was better at not smothering TK than Matt was because Matt cared too much. Tai could be what TK thought he wanted in a brother because Tai saw TK as a friend, not a brother.

…Maybe seeing Tai and Kari had made TK realize that Tai definitely wasn't free of overprotective tendencies.

* * *

"Why are you looking so down, Biyomon?" Tai wondered after he and Kari had spread out the contents of his convenience store bags on the carpet and the Digimon had started to dig in.

"I was hoping you'd be Sora."

"Wait, Sora's not here yet?" Sora?

"I know," Matt said, shaking his head. "I thought it was going to be Sora too. I could have sworn you'd either be the first to get here or the last."

Tai threw his arm over Matt's shoulder. "Bet it was a big disappointment to see my ugly face instead, right?"

"Well, I don't know, your sister's…"

The friendly arm instantly became a chokehold.

* * *

"I am so, so sorry," Sora said when she finally stopped spinning Biyomon around. "The bathroom had a line, so I ducked into a closet to look at my Digivice, and then I needed to find Reiko to get me out of that kimono."

"Reiko?" Tai asked. "Who's Reiko?"

"One of my cousins from the branch family schools. She _really_ doesn't like me, so I knew she'd just give me a hand right away instead of trying to convince me to stay," Sora told him. "I let her assume I was going to make a big production about not wanting to be the heir like I did a couple of years ago."

"That doesn't sound very nice," Joe said.

Sora shook her head. "She really loves flower arranging, but her branch isn't as prestigious, so her family wants her to study for entrance exams and go to college to have a back-up plan instead of focusing on her flower-arranging studies. She really admires Mom and thinks I'm a big jerk to her – it's really not just jealousy because I'm the heir to the main branch and playing soccer instead is throwing away everything she wants. I was _trying_ to get Mom to adopt her and let her be the heir instead, but now that I'm on better terms with Mom…" She let out a breath. "Not _only_ being the rebel anymore means I have to pay attention to family politics instead of just letting people use me for whatever. I've kind of been messing things up for Mom, but she didn't want to worry me."

"Sounds like you need a break," Tai said sympathetically.

"I know I'm tempting fate," Sora said, "but… at least it's been good to be back in the Digital World so far?"

Mimi and Joe looked at each other, frowning. No, they didn't want to tell her what it was like out there, not yet.

"Well," Gennai said, "It's well past midnight. Mojyamon – you met him as Piximon – will be here tomorrow. The two of us were planning to place a barrier around File City and Primary Village. I know that now that all of you are here, you must want to confer, but I would be honored if you would lend us your power to strengthen the barrier."

"Oh, sure," Sora said.

"That's a relief," Joe agreed.

"Yeah." Tai nodded. "With all the refugees here… I didn't want to leave them sitting ducks, but we have to do something about Millenniummon before he carpet-bombs this place." All these Digimon living peacefully, some of them coming here because they thought Tai and the others would protect them?

"The barrier won't hold up against a mega, but it will negate attacks, even Ultimate attacks, if it draws on the eight of us," Izzy told them excitedly.


	2. We Can Do No Other

_Yes, I am going with the not-confirmed theory that it's Machinedramon's personality in control of Millenniummon. Differences in behavior don't really mean all that much when both Machinedramon and Millenniummon are shown to act differently depending on who they're speaking with. You end up with one consummate manipulator who acts like an automaton when he doesn't want his 'allies' to know how smart he is; snarky and utterly contemptuous when it's only minions and vermin in need of exterminating; gracelessly rude when it's Ken; and cultured and seductive when it's Ryo. The ability to wear masks like that is a known trait of those who see other people as things to control... and we're dealing with a creator of mind-control tech._

 _That's on top of the in-game discussion on how his behavior is being altered by a certain factor, and since that factor is altering his behavior_ by its absence _and it's been absent his entire life, we really can't say that we've_ ever _seen unaltered behavior. That's one of the questions that drives the AU this leads into, actually. There are illnesses, infections, allergies, that can 'completely alter someone's personality' from the perspective of outside observers not just when they make people sick but by chronic conditions being_ cured _, because those things have been tampering with… long list, but a lot of things feed into your emotions, and that affects what you think and how you behave. So, if you consider your thoughts and behavior patterns your 'self…'_

 _It is also definitely possible for one component personality sucked into another Digimon or pulled into a merge with other Digimon to take over instead of the personality that 'should' have been in charge, so if the Millenniummon digivolution/jogress_ would _have had a personality of its own, given V-Tamer Daemon and Fusion's Bagramon that newborn personality could have been SOL._

* * *

"Alright!" the abominable snowmon said when they arrived in the grassy field someone had drawn a lot of lines on with chalk dust, although they didn't look like any soccer field Tai had ever seen. "I need you sitting in the eight compass directions."

Yes, that was definitely Piximon under all that white fur. Same old drill sergeant.

"Any particular order?" Tai wondered, looking at the circle inscribed on the floor and the low boxes with cushions they were probably supposed to sit on.

"Any parti-" Mojyamon started to sputter, then sighed. "Why would you possibly know?" he asked himself, looking up at the heavens before looking back at them. "The Child of Light in the East, the Child of Hope in the West..."

"Wouldn't it be simpler to place the crests for them?" Gennai asked, arriving from behind them carrying a picnic basket.

"Put the crests in the open any sooner than we have to?" Mojyamon scolded him. "We're only putting them out for the ceremony because we have to! It's way too dangerous to let that power fall into the hands of evil Digimon, when Millenniummon has to want to stop you from unsealing the Sovereign!"

Gennai looked duly scolded, but smiled.

"…Are you two partners?" Tai asked.

Instantly Mojyamon whirled to face Tai. Gennai tapped Mojyamon's arm with the end of his cane.

"While I'm flattered that you think me worthy of the honor, I'm afraid not, Child of Courage," he said with a certain degree of firmness, looking at Mojyamon, before actually turning to Tai. "Mojyamon is a very old and dear friend, who has helped me since not long after I escaped from the Dark Masters' attack on my temple, but that's all we can be. We artificial humans aren't capable of being partners to Digimon, so I was unable to help him in return."

"And what do you call placing that barrier, and…" Mojyamon tsked. "We need to get _this_ barrier up. Give me that," he told Gennai. "I'll get the crests placed, you go sit there."

In front of the higher box in the center of the diagram, while Mojyamon fussed with the crests. "Hold your digivices out in front of you and channel your power through them into the crests," he told them. "Yes?"

Biyomon lowered her wing. "Where do we sit?"

"Behind the daises, of course, there's no room for eight champions inside the circle! And you're not sitting, this is a barrier, so you're guarding! Face outwards and look ferocious while you focus on protect-Yes?"

Gomamon kept his flipper up. "Champion? Why not digivolve to Ultimate? Or even mega. We've got the crests for now, right?" Why not power the ritual up?

"Isn't your ultimate digivolution Zudomon, Crusher of the Dark?" Mojyamon asked him. "Does it look like there's room?"

"Lilymon is smaller than Togemon," Palmon pointed out.

"It's a good thing we're doing a dress rehearsal," Sora said, looking around. The circle wasn't small, there was enough for two champions like Mojyamon to pass between each of the boxes, but some of their partners were pretty big in their Champion _and_ Ultimate forms.

"Oh, I hope I'm not sitting next to Tai," Joe said. "Ikkakumon and Greymon… Will it mess everything up if we have to move the boxes out a little?"

* * *

On the way back from the field once the ritual was completed, a few of the older kids were quiet while Mimi tried to work out how to use the ribbon in her hair – she'd whispered to Palmon that it wasn't exactly her color, but it was a gift so she had to wear it at least a few times where Gennai could see. "I know it's raising a barrier and Gennai was part of a religious order, but wasn't that like…" Sora blinked down at the flowers in her hands.

Flowers. She didn't resent them anymore, but why was she the one who got flowers when Mimi's partner _was_ a flower?

"Like a court magician making an offering to the gods presiding over different directions?" Izzy asked her. "Well, yes." He looked around at them. "You guys didn't know that? In the Digital World, humans are considered kami."

Matt blinked. "Wait, like… Gods?" Really?

"They have prophecies about us," Izzy reminded him.

"I saw the temples, but I thought it was more about the Crests?"

"Well, there are kami and then there are kami." There were kami who were very old trees, and there were kami who were _the sun_. "According to Gennai's religion, every Digimon has a patron human that can grant them power, immortality and some other kind of blessing that depended on the human. Digimon would go to temples to try to connect to their guardian kami and pray for the power to digivolve. Digimon who couldn't digivolve were considered abandoned by the gods."

"Ouch." Sora winced. "That explains a lot about Apocalymon."

"Huh," Joe wondered. "We _can_ digivolve our partners, but… I bet it's based on legends of the ancient digidestined."

Tai nodded. "Humans came from another world to save them, so I guess the other Digimon wanted to believe that they could have partners too. I mean, who _wouldn't_ want a partner Digimon?"

"Well," Izzy said conscientiously, "I can't say for sure, since the main database I have comes from Gennai's religion so it's definitely biased, but most of the tenets of Gennai's religion seem to have some basis in facts we have personal experience with, even if personal anecdotes are no substitute for proper experimentation. Our partners were connected to us before we ever met, so other Digimon theoretically could have ties to their partners, even without digivices. The question is if those bonds are strong enough to have any significant effect on the Digimon if the human isn't a Digidestined? It might depend on the human, too."

Everyone glanced at Kari. Yeah, some humans were more powerful than other humans, and some of them were probably more open to bonds than others, too.

Kari was frowning. "Does that mean that Digimon that make it to Ultimate or Mega are more blessed than rookies?"

"It's been interpreted that way," Izzy confirmed.

"Especially by megas, I bet," Joe said, frowning.

Izzy nodded. Probably. "The most blessed Digimon are the Protectors of Digidestined and the Sovereign, who were raised to godhood by their patron humans. Rookie Digimon are sometimes called children, so Tentomon and I are both Chosen Children. It would be prodigious if Gennai can unseal the Sovereign: they're a lot more powerful than ordinary megas and they're thousands of years old. They've personally experienced much of the history of the Digital World that's been erased by mass numbers of Digimon deaths causing them to forget the oral history, and the rearrangement of the landscape damaging the archeological record."

"Yeah, getting four powerful Digimon like that on our side is worth giving him a few more days to try to figure it out, if Millenniummon will let us have that time. Did you know about this?" Tai asked Gatomon.

"When I was younger, but Myotismon wanted us to be willing to invade the human world and attack the Child of Light," Gatomon told him. "I didn't think the person I was looking for was my patron god. Maybe I didn't _let_ it occur to me, since humans don't come to the Digital world all that often, so no matter how much I searched the Digital World, I couldn't have found Kari."

"It's like guardian angels!" TK realized. "So I'm Patamon's guardian angel, too?" he wondered, looking up at Patamon, who nodded from the top of TK's hat.

"Piedmon was a mega because of Apocalymon, right?" Mimi asked. "Can Digimon become megas without a god's help?"

Izzy's thoughtful look vanished. "Yes," he said, glaring at the ground in front of him. "Digimon have tried a lot of things to accelerate Digivolution… or had those things tried on them. Machinedramon's factory was manufacturing Ultimates, and Digivolutions like Machinedramon and Megaseadramon were created by someone in the ancient past. Kimeramon was an artificial Digimon, too."

"So he was built that tough?" Matt asked. "Explains a lot."

"You don't expect something that big and heavy to be able to run us ragged like that," Tai agreed. "No food, no sleep, all the bombs: he kept us too worn out to fight a mega. It took a miracle for us to beat him."

Agumon nodded. "I wouldn't have been able to digivolve and use that attack if it weren't for Kari." And the light she'd channeled.

Kari shuddered. "Those poor Numemon…"

"Still," Tai said hurriedly, "I guess that's why Mojyamon got all upset when I asked. They're best friends, but Gennai's never going to have a partner to protect him. He must have been really worried about Gennai, and here we were, not knowing anything."

"Wow," Mimi said, shaking her head in pity. "All that time waiting and hoping, and they got the seven of us. Remember what we were like when Piximon met us?"

Matt and Izzy had the grace to wince. It was their fault the barrier around the temple was broken and Etemon found it. Since the hidden places were the only safe ones once the Dark Masters attacked, how much had they messed things up for the Resistance? Piximon's place had been pretty big, they wouldn't have built something like that unless they were planning to use it.

"Thousands of years in the Digital World between what happened at Heighton View Terrace and when we finally showed up. So they were probably expecting, oh I don't know, a little maturity?" Mimi shook her head again. Wow, those poor things. They'd been so wrong if that was true.

"Hey, the legend did say Chosen _Children,_ right?" Matt said. "What were they expecting? We didn't know anything about all of this!"

"I think that's exactly Mojyamon's problem," Sora said, looking at him. "All those people praying to us, and _we didn't know anything_. A lot of us didn't really care about the Digital World, not at first."

"All that time praying to for someone to help, and I don't know if anyone heard them," Kari said sadly.

"Gennai tried his hardest to keep our eggs safe," he hadn't managed to save Gatomon, but he'd protected Patamon and the others, "and at first a lot of you didn't care." TK looked downcast. "Even me, I let Demidevimon…"

'It wasn't like we owed them anything,' the old Matt would have said. They hadn't _asked_ for any of it. But… the Digital World really did need their help. All those _people_ , all those years: _someone_ needed to stop it, someone needed to protect them.

"We're lucky he didn't attack us one by one as we got here. How are we going to beat him now that he's even more powerful?" Joe didn't look all that hopeful, looking down at the roll of bandages in his hands. They'd given him something practical, something he could use to help other Digimon, but Joe might not be able to help them. What if he didn't have the power to keep them from getting hurt in the first place?

Horns began to sound.

Matt winced at the sound. "Hey, 'Queen Mimi,' your subjects are-"

"Sounding the alarm!" she called, running past them into town, Palmon following her.

* * *

"Well, he definitely looks like someone jammed together different Digimon," was Mimi's assessment. "Those are Machinedramon's cannons, but does his lower head look a bit like Kabuterimon to you, Izzy?" she wondered.

Perched on Megakabuterimon's shell, Izzy nodded. "Gennai loaded his data on the Kimeramon that appeared into my database. It looked like it was made up of parts from several of our partners' champion forms. That's why I'm glad we can still digivolve to Ultimate." Megakabuterimon's head didn't look like that.

"Is that a threat?" Joe asked, peering over Zudomon's head carefully. "Like he's going to chop our partners up for spare parts."

"Like he _will_ ," Izzy said, shuddering. "Judging from the particle reading, Kimeramon came from the future. There are other Digimon with the same champion digivolutions as our partners out there, but if we prevent Kimeramon's creation, that may create a paradox."

Time travel wasn't really all that weird compared to the rest of what they'd seen, so no one felt the need to ask: Tai once thought he'd time traveled himself, but it was just an effect of the time dilation between the Digital World and Earth. "So what does that mean for us?" Mimi asked.

"I'm not in a position to speculate, I just don't have enough informat-"

"Izzy," Kari scolded him. "You're worried."

"…all the theories I have aren't very good for us. Even if the Digital World is on our side, it's possible the universe may resist any course of events that would prevent the creation of Kimeramon in order to preserve itself. There are other Kabuterimon out there, but taking several Digimon and experimenting on them to create a single Digimon to send back in time to allow a Digimon like Millenniummon to ascend to godhood without a partner isn't something the good guys would do. Unless they had to, if it turns out to be the only way to create a stable time loop that doesn't involve Millenniummon winning."

"…I really hope not," Joe said, blanching.

"I think my expertise is a little more applicable than yours, Joe," Izzy said, looking worried. "We can still hope it doesn't come to that. Kimeramon's existence may be something from a potential future pulled into this timeline by Millenniummon's power. In which case as long as Kimeramon's existence remains possible – and almost anything is possible – we shouldn't have to deal with a paradox."

"So either way, worrying about it won't do us any good," was Tai's judgment. "He's got six arms he can use to block attacks, between the four on the lower body and the two that kind of ghost hanging over him has." There was a second head hovering above the head that looked like Kabuterimon's. It seemed like it was made up of energy, two large arms made up of the same energy reaching down from its shoulders. "I'll ask Sora when she gets back, but that head looks a little like Machinedramon's to me. Like his ghost is possessing someone else's body after you killed him," he commented, turning his head to look at Wargreymon's.

"We'll finish him off this time," Wargreymon said.

"Uh-huh!" Tai nodded.

"He's… letting… us come to him," Matt said, each word laden with reluctance.

His eyes met Tai's. One of the Digimon that ambushed them as soon as they arrived in the Digital World, before they even had a chance to get their bearings? The Digimon that pursued them all over his territory was letting them come to him and fight him on _their_ terms, at full power?

"Trap," Tai and Joe said simultaneously, one confirming and one complaining.

"We're not seriously going to walk right into this," Joe said, looking around from Zudomon's back.

"He's got those cannons, they're already charged up and the barrier won't hold against a Mega's attacks," Mimi said, sitting in Lilymon's arms as her Digimon flew down to get her closer to Joe. "So yes, we seriously are. There's no Geneva Convention here, he'll _aim_ for your hospital, because it's harder to evacuate." So leveling it would kill more people.

Garudamon swooped down, Sora standing on her foot and holding on to her leg with one arm. "Those are Megadramon back there flanking him. I can't see more than four of them, but they're carrying something," Sora said, putting the binoculars back in her bag.

"Alright. Once Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon have him pinned down a little, you flyers swing wide around him and take out the Megadramon since you can fight them in the air," Tai said, crouched on Wargreymon's shoulder as his partner walked next to MetalGarurumon. "MagnaAngemon and Angewomon on the left, Lilymon, Garudamon and MegaKabuterimon on the right."

That would give them a three-to-two advantage in one case, and much better in the other. MagnaAngemon could take down Megas, even if his powers were less effective against dragon Digimon than dark Digimon.

"Zudomon, you and Joe are our reserve. Hang back for awhile and see who needs help the-"

"You," Joe interrupted him. "You and Matt are the ones who are going to need help, but am I the only one who's noticed that _he's not firing yet_."

Oh crap. That went way beyond trap. That was _not_ like Machinedramon. "Some kind of decoy or illusion?" Sora asked. "Did merging with Kimeramon mess with his personality?"

Tai grimaced. "We still need to take out the Megadramon, or they'll start shooting everyone in the back as soon as we start fighting Millenniummon. Alright, you guys who can fly go on ahead, see what you can see along the way. The rest of us will have to stay closer to town for now." Zudomon was the slowest, so if he got drawn out of position, they'd have to hope his armor held out or he'd be toast.

"Right," Angewomon said, starting to move off to the left to make a _large_ circle around Millenniummon, MagnaAngemon following her.

"I'll cover you," Metalgarurumon told Wargreymon.

Yeah, Tai knew. If Millenniummon was still Machinedramon inside, he'd remember that Wargreymon was the one that sliced him like an onion.

"We're doomed," Joe said flatly.

"Don't say that," Zudomon said.

Joe shook his head, eyes a little wild. "No. Guys, this is not…" He looked down, clenching a fist. "Zudomon, let's go."

" _You_ want us to charge into battle?" Matt asked.

"No, not _you_. Me and Zudomon. Someone has to spring this." Joe gripped his partner's shell tighter. "Let's go, Zudomon!"

"Right!" roared the great walrus, hefting his hammer and beginning to charge.

"I should be running _away_ so there's someone left to try to do something after they get themselves killed… You're a bad influence, Zudomon!" they heard Joe yelling.

"The baddest!"

Matt groaned. "Joe really does have the worst luck."

"Hey, we like Gomamon's sense of humor," Tai quipped.

Then he spat, finding something in his mouth. He pulled his head back. Rope? Criss-crossed rope. A net? Past it, ground? That was a long way down.

Some weight landed on his head, knocking his face into the net again. He felt claws, trying not to cut him, like when Agumon was shifting during the night one of the times they were somewhere cold enough he needed to take advantage of his partner's internal furnace. "Agumon?"

"Tai?" Agumon's voice sounded dazed. "There's a Megadramon right above us!"

"I should have listened to Joe!" If Millenniummon wanted to kill them, he would have _started already!_ And Machinedramon was not a big fan of letting _anyone_ live, but especially enemies! He wouldn't have even considered capture unless he had something he thought was foolproof!

"Tai!" Agumon started to glow.

Not digivolving, or de-digivolving… "Here!" Tai pressed his digivice into Agumon's hand.

"No! I don't want to leave you!" Agumon cried, but even though Tai hugged him, that wasn't enough to pull him along with Agumon.

He _hoped_ it was Gennai who had just warped Agumon out, but they were already captured and what was the point of putting them in nets if they weren't going to warp them still in the nets?

Tai looked around. Alright, they were going that way, towards some kind of glowing thing on the ground… He shielded his eyes as the glow enveloped them.

Was that… That was _Piedmon's_ palace?

* * *

Even in the haze of sleep, he recognized the voice that was yelling at him. Izzy groaned. "Five more minutes, Mimi…"

"Izzy, wake up! There's a black ring on Palmon!"

That made him bolt upright. "Tentomon?" Oh no. There, on Tentomon's leg! Izzy's hand frantically clawed at his bag strap. "Use your digi-" Izzy's digivice was missing.

"Devimon took our digivices before we woke up!"

"Devimon?" Izzy looked in Mimi's direction, registering the bars. Cage. The land dropped off, and past it he could see ocean.

"We're on top of Spiral Mountain!"

"But Spiral Mountain shouldn't exist anymore! The old File Island was made entirely of black gears, it shouldn't have been replaced when the Digital World regenerated!"

"Well, _you_ tell _me_ where we are!"

Right. Laptop. He had his laptop. "Give me a second," Izzy said, and found himself looking at Tentomon.

His partner was just _staring_ at him, without any trace of recognition in those segmented eyes.

"…Tentomon?" Izzy said, voice small.

Nothing. His partner wasn't answering him.

Izzy drew in a breath. Pulled his Pineapple laptop open. Right. There had to be something he could do. There had to be.

* * *

Stuffed animals.

They looked like stuffed animals.

The ring on Patamon was where one of his ears met his head, but Biyomon's was around her ankle, like the rings they used to track migratory birds. They were just standing there, not even blinking. Did Digimon's eyes get dried out?

If only Izzy was here he could hack into Etemon's pyramid (or Datamon's), but she didn't know if Izzy was still alive. She'd seen someone else in one of the other Megadramon's nets before Biyomon was dumped on top of her. Izzy and Tentomon were next, but then Izzy and Tentomon were gone and Biyomon wasn't moving anymore. Another blink, and TK and Patamon had replaced Izzy.

A God of Time, that was what Gennai had called him.

Making time pass faster in the Digital World _wasn't_ all he could do. If he could make time pass faster for himself while everyone else was frozen, then he could just walk right up to them and step on them. Or capture them, like this, and make Biyomon and Patamon serve him.

Sora wasn't in restraints on a lab table like the last time she'd been captured here, but she was still trapped in this cage and she didn't know what to do, either to save her partner or to reassure TK so he would stop crying. If only she had her digivice, she should be able to free Biyomon, but it was gone.

Her partner… she'd let her partner become someone's _toy_.

* * *

"I knew it," Joe was saying, staring into space. "I _knew_ it. It's my job to be the responsible one, _someone_ has to be, and I let myself be optimistic. I let myself care about making you proud of me instead of keeping you safe, Gomamon!" He gripped his head in his hands. "I _knew_ it. I should have run, I should have gotten you out of there, and now who's going to get any of us out of anywhere?"

Matt was dimly aware that he really should do something about Joe beating himself up, but right now all he could do was not beat himself up.

"TK's not here," he reminded himself, gripping the bar of the birdcage hung in the middle of the torture chamber and squeezing it to try to center himself. There wasn't even enough room to stand up. "TK's not here." Thank the _gods_.

"You get your hands off her, you-" Kari was yelling, grabbing the bars of her own cage forcefully enough to send it rocking, "Or I'll!"

TK wasn't here to hear the words Tai's little sister had somehow picked up. TK wasn't here to have the torture implements _everywhere_ in the room used on him, or have to watch helplessly as someone else screamed.

Normally, if they had to be captured, Matt would want TK close, where he could try to grab him when they broke out, or do _something_ to help him.

But TK wasn't here, in this room, where Gatomon was sitting with her eyes empty and a black ring in the place of the gold one on her wrist, on the lap of her former master as he watched them, _anticipating_ what he was going to do to them and letting them have time to remember what he was capable of.

Myotismon was here, alive, again, somehow. Myotismon was here, but TK wasn't. So TK was somewhere else, where Myotismon wasn't.

 _Thank the Eight Million Gods_.

* * *

 _From the crest-glowing episodes, it's interesting how much of a problem a strength turned against you can be (Mimi's crest is cheating - well, really,_ all _of the crests are strong in their particular areas_ ). _Given the translation issues, Joe's is a little hard to pin down, but given how it acts and what it reacts to, it would be acting up in this chapter._

 _Defeating the Digidestined when they still had their Crests in a fair fight would be one heck of an impressive Worf Effect fight scene, but there is no way it happened that way. A fair fight? Even as Machinedramon, he didn't believe in them. The reason the Digidestined didn't have a chance is because Millenniummon is a cheating cheater who cheats. ...if you think that there's such a thing as 'cheating' in warfare, that is._

 _Time/space/dimension godhood is incredibly abusable, and he knows his science, programming and physics. He does stuff like repeatedly rewind time to undo all the damage the player has managed to do to him not as a scripted event, but like any other combat ability. He_ _Munchkin'd himself explicitly impossible to defeat_ – _setting up a stable time loop is a possible theory for how he did this_. _Unless the enemy has a power that lets them cheat right back, of course._


	3. Someone Needs To Help Them

_An interesting little thing – in Adventure's sub, the mountain on File Island the black gears come from is Mugen Mountain._

 _Machinedramon's name in the Japanese ?_ Mugen _dramon. That can certainly be read as suggesting a link between him and the black gears lying in wait all around Primary Village, digging under and reshaping the land, the way Machinedramon was involved in turning the entire digital world into a single mountain._

 _Interesting that he went from 'infinite' to 'a thousand,' and then in the fourth game there's a rather important Digimon whose name contains a word meaning 'one.'_

 _Game dialogue paraphrased a lot (because using direct quotes in fic is a grey area) from syldra dot net slash yesterday's wonderful translations. Go there, read, thank them very much?_ _Once again, this is a slight AU, not a game-accurate novelization, because I'm trying to make the game experience feel a little more integrated into the anime experience._

* * *

"You shouldn't be wasting your time on this," Mojyamon told him, standing in the doorway after letting Agumon go past. He'd be very glad whenever he got back to Piximon again, but at least his thick-furred Champion form made for an excellent doorstopper, and soundproofing. "We need the Sovereign." Nobody else might have the power to avenge those kids.

"Mojyamon, without the Child of Knowledge's help and the other Digidestined's wills guiding their power, it will take me months to figure out how to unseal the Sovereign, especially with Millenniummon's disruption of the digital world making it harder to access where they're sealed away. The Children may not have that much time."

"You know how Machinedramon operated!" He'd killed, or worse, enough of the Resistance! This was why Piximon hadn't hesitated to face down four megas to get them to safety, because he knew well what would happen if he didn't. He didn't like it either, when he'd seen so many innocent students that it was easy to see what kind of people the children were, humans or no humans. What kind of heroes they once were. "Face it, Gennai, the Children are already dead!"

Gennai shook his head, shoulders bowed under the weight of age, responsibility and thoughts of failure. "When the Child of Courage dies, Agumon will know. Until then we can't give up hope, Mojyamon."

"If there was any chance I'd be out there already looking for them, but with Machinedramon involved, Gennai, the only thing anyone can hope for is a quick, merciful death." Mojyamon shook his head. "We've already lost hope, literally. And you've lost your mind. You may feel guilty about dragging the… the human version of in-trainings into our world when they had no idea we existed, but how is bringing in another human going to help them? Tai may have managed to spot the warp and give Agumon his digivice, but how is a human with a borrowed digivice, no partner prepared and no Crest going to help anything?" He'd just get captured by Millenniummon too. Gennai would just end up feeling even guiltier, and for what? For being as powerless as he was _created_ to be?

"Mojyamon, you know the prophecies we've managed to dig up just as well as I do," Gennai told him. "I thought that the Power of Miracles referred to the blessings of the Children of Light and Hope, the way it did in the last prophecy about the Digidestined, but one of the lost crests is the Crest of Miracles."

"It would _take_ a Mir-"

Gennai interrupted Mojyamon by tapping him with his cane. "Exactly. To find the Child of Miracles among the Eight Billion Gods, in less than a minute as their world counts time? It is impossible. But Courage finds a way, Mojyamon, and with the power of Miracles, all things can be made possible."

"How do you still have faith?" Mojyamon asked for the hundredth time, remembering the first time in that desert, when he realized that the wanderer that had legged it with him away from a Scorpiomon without contributing a single attack didn't have any attacks to contribute. One of the most defenseless creatures in the Digital World, a race that was supposedly extinct because no one had managed to claim the bounty in decades, and _what in the Digital World was he doing out here alone?_

After trying to shake some sense into him… There wasn't anyone left that Gennai could trust, not with a search for the digi-egg of the blessed of the _Child of Light_. A goddess who would be the bane of the dark Digimon threatening their world, if only _a priest survived to summon her_.

" _How do you still have faith?"_ was one question. " _How have you survived this long?"_ was another.

Piximon hadn't quite liked how Gennai grinned and said the second question was the answer to the first.

He expected to see that same smile, even if now it would be surrounded by wrinkles. Instead Gennai sighed, and gripped his cane tightly enough Mojyamon could see the whites of his knuckles. "Truthfully, Mojyamon?" he asked.

"Do you think you have to lie to me? I'm not a rookie that needs their spirits kept up."

"At first…" Gennai said, staring into the distance, looking even older even if his eyes were still sharper than they were before the Digidestined arrived. "At first because I couldn't let it all be for nothing. Not that slaughter. Our deaths, our _lives_ , the only reason we were ever brought into existence: the prophecies and our beliefs _had_ to be true, or else everyone… Or else it was all meaningless. I was created as a Temple Guard, and keeping the faith was the only thing I could still do to protect their memories. Even if I kept proving my faith by risking my life, and then the last trace of my brothers really would have been lost… Then, you forcibly joined me, and I got over myself a little," Gennai said, trying to smile. "And I saw what it meant that there were no more temples, no more priests. That as Digimon were slaughtered and reborn, most of them forgot that there even was another world out there, and the spirits of its inhabitants were tied to the spirits of Digimon. It wasn't just the ones who turned their backs on the gods or cursed their fate as the darkness spread, but Digimon who would hatch and die without ever remembering that there was someone out there who would _love_ them."

"But they don't love us," Mojyamon told him. "They don't even know we exist."

"We were sealed away from them, Mojyamon," Gennai said gently. "They couldn't reach us any more than we could reach them. I'm sure some of those who were friends to Digimon in ancient times are still trying to reach us, but it took us thousands of years to discover ways around the seal, and they haven't even had eleven. We can't blame most humans for never finding out about our existence when most Digimon forgot about them, and we have the entire world around us, born from their creation, as proof of their existence."

Mojyamon frowned, and had to admit that was true. Gennai was the one who believed that kind of thing, not him. It was childish to hold stories Digimon made up to comfort themselves in the dark centuries against the real people, as though it was their fault they were mortal any more than it was Gennai's fault that last of his legendary kind or not, he wasn't a mega and couldn't save anyone.

"The Dark Masters didn't exterminate the Artificial Humans just to keep us from summoning the Digidestined, Mojyamon. They exterminated us so that Digimon would fall into despair and give more power to Apocalymon. I didn't know about Apocalymon back then, but I saw the despair. Young Digimon beaten by their masters, thinking that there was nothing they could do, they would never be able to digivolve. Azulongmon and the other Sovereign didn't just create us because Digimon who study technology commit blasphemy, but as living reminders of the other world. I had to keep the faith because I had to believe that those Digimon had hope. That the Digidestined _would_ come, and those Digimon would see the truth of the other world."

Gennai sighed. "Then."

"Then?"

"Time dragged on and on, and it became hard to believe in a world where every Digimon was loved, safe, had a chance to be happy… that this could ever possibly exist. I did lose my faith, Mojyamon. I spent a very long time without it, but if I showed anyone my doubts? I was the last of my kind. If even _I_ didn't believe in the Digidestined, in the Order of Azulongmon's tenets, then why would anyone else? I kept acting as though I believed, I kept working to summon the gods because, because I had to. There was no one else. There was no other hope. Even if, sometimes… I thought that once I did the ritual, and the children failed or refused to come, all our hopes would be crushed by the Dark Masters. Sometimes, I gave into despair enough to think that the chance of saving our world wasn't worth the certainty of defeat, that everyone would lose their last hope. That I should pretend to keep failing to summon the Digidestined so everyone else could keep hoping."

"Why… why will you never tell me these things?" He'd withdrawn, began to act more and more senile, like his memory was going, and Mojyamon had to wonder how much of it was malfunction, accumulated damage from finding himself in more fights than artificial humans were designed to handle when they couldn't die to repair their data, and how much of it was that he couldn't bear to remember.

"I'm the one who's supposed to be comforting you, Mojyamon. I can't fight, I can't digivolve anyone: besides working on the barriers and doing what I can to preserve and spread knowledge, keeping the faith is all I can do. Even when the children did come, I didn't really believe in them anymore. Now I'm embarrassed to remember how disrespectful I was, but it was almost better that way, I think. They weren't faced with impossible expectations."

Mojyamon remembered a bunch of rookies, the humans of the prophecies but still _rookies_ , and the 'we're sorry please don't be mad' after they got his barrier broken by doing what they were supposed to do and finding their crests. There was no 'obey us!' or 'send us home, we don't want to have do deal with things that don't concern us' but 'help how do we take better care of our partners?' The big problem he had to deal with wasn't some flaw in the Child of Courage, some inner darkness that led to his partner's dark digivolution, but that Tai's honest attempt to learn how to make Agumon stronger had hurt Tai's partner. And Tai _cared_ , enough it might have kept him from digivolving Agumon again even when Tai was in trouble, because he didn't want to hurt his partner.

These were the children who would save the world, and honestly he had felt like they had more of a chance after realizing that they had no idea what they were doing and were figuring it out as they went along. It meant their mistakes were born of ignorance, not malice or lack of dedication, and they had pretty good instincts and were grateful for advice.

"It was the children who restored my faith. Not just in the gods, but in myself. At first, I thought that I was based on beings that were… ancient and wise and knowledgeable and able to help Digimon with ease. So my own weaknesses… had to be my own fault. But the children were… children. I was brusque with them, terribly disrespectful, because I couldn't afford to put any faith in them, not when a final disappointment might…" Might be too much to bear, when the resistance needed Gennai's knowledge and techniques.

"So I treated them like rookies, and found that they were _people_ , not that different from Digimon or my brothers, with no more idea of what to do next than I did when I escaped from the temple. They were torn from their world, and yet they came to love their partners, they came back to save us all even after they escaped our world. The gods we believed in all those centuries were _real,_ Mojyamon… and yet they are also people, just like Digimon, even like myself. Imperfect and ignorant and sometimes despairing, yet capable of finding a way to live on even when all seems lost. So yes, Mojyamon. I believe in the Chosen Children. I believe that the Power of Miracles can… No, that the Power of Miracles _will_ save us. Even when the Sovereign fell, the Chosen Children came as soon as we could bring them. The two worlds may be separated in time once again, but once Millenniummon is defeated, we will _finally_ be able to reach out to that world, begin the work of uniting Digimon with their partners. I'm sure that world has dangers of its own, and right now our world is vulnerable, only beginning to rebuild, but someday…" Gennai blinked, finally noticing that Mojyamon was glaring at him.

"I've told you I don't want a partner," he said firmly. "I have important work to do. Even when the two worlds are finally united and everyone rejoices, the world still won't be perfect and there will still be things that need doing to protect this world."

His old friend laughed at him. "And you already dropped everything to spend your life taking care of one random person."

"And I already dropped everything to spend my life supporting our world's hope and trying to make sure that when you got yourself killed, there would still be _someone_ who could use at least a few of your techniques."

Gennai sighed. "Those techniques don't belong in the hands of Digimon. I'm sure the Abbot would say your refusal to seek the blessing of your destined human is because I taught you so much of the forbidden arts…"

"I've already died, I think that takes care of the curse." The curse that supposedly made every Digimon who learned how to program either evil or dead. "If I still remember this much of what you taught me before I died-" When _skills_ weren't something that babies remembered outside of stories, and when Piximon died he'd expected to have to spend centuries figuring out his techniques again because there was no one of his school left to teach him?

Stories and Patamon.

"Then your partner has blessed you with the ability to carry those memories into the next life. I know, Mojyamon. Far more people are remembering more now than they did during Apocalymon's rise. It is a sign that the worlds are close again, and the bonds Apocalymon tried to sever are being healed." Gennai looked at him sadly. "Mojyamon, the fact that you were an ultimate, and stayed that way for so long despite all your battles, proves that your partner's soul was searching for yours, even unknowingly. Will you choose to turn your back on that, the way you thought they turned their backs on our world?"

* * *

The door to the cellar flew open. "I've done it!" Gennai said happily. "Yes, I think this will work! See, Mojyamon, the gods are on our side, well, except for that one. Ha, if the Abbot could see me now, saying I didn't have the least aptitude for it: I'd like to see _him_ reinvent all of those rituals!"

* * *

"I'll be sending you into the human network," Gennai explained to him. "Since it exists in both the human and digital worlds simultaneously, it's the easiest way to create a bridge between the worlds. Now, our options are limited to the potential Digidestined who are online right now, because it would take too long for you to track someone down if they were away from their computer. None of the Chosen Children whose partners I've managed to locate are online right now. There's one Digidestined in America whose partners have been in the real world with him for years, but it seems he's still asleep."

"Partners?" Agumon asked.

"They hatched from a single Digi-egg. I'm unsure if it's related to the power of his crest or not, but then I don't know what his crest is, either. The one I'll be sending you to is a boy named Ryo. He's not Willis, but out of the children without partners, he would have been my first choice," Gennai said. "Any Digidestined would be better than none, but Ryo has an aptitude for programming, even if he hasn't been allowed to start writing and using his own programs on his father's work computer. Any Digidestined could use Tai's Digivice to free Digimon from Millenniummon's mind control and hopefully let Mojyamon and the others get some information on his plans, but do you remember that Digital barrier I taught Izzy to set up?"

"Not really, but if Ryo can protect himself from Millenniummon's minions…" Agumon's eyes widened. "Wait, that was a Digital Barrier around Piximon's temple, and Piximon made us invisible inside that bubble when he sent us away from the Dark Masters! Do you think Ryo could make us invisible so we can sneak into Millenniummon's bases to look for Tai?"

Gennai nodded. "That's the plan. I'll need to stay here and see if any other Digidestined come online, but Mojyamon can travel with you for long enough to teach Ryo the basics."

Agumon's eyes widened. Being trained by Piximon was a real honor! Yes, that would definitely help a lot.

"Even if you won't be able to digivolve to protect him, you know your way around the Digital World, and how to keep a human safe here while you're at it. Although hopefully it won't take long for destiny to guide Ryo to his partner and his crest, and then we'll see where we are. If any of the other kids go on a computer, I can either send their partner to bring them or hatch one of the eggs I have digivices for. I hope you don't mind loaning Ryo Tai's digivice, but it's absorbed some of Tai's power."

"I just hope it helps," Agumon said. "Oh, Izzy digivolved Kabuterimon with programming that time. Did that only work because Kabuterimon was his partner?"

"I'm not sure, but let me know if he can, that would let me narrow down his crest," Gennai said. "Of course, our first priorities were the partners and the digivices. There were a lot more potential Digidestined identified than we lasted long enough to make crests for. Thank goodness that destiny was on our side, and the eight of you lined up nicely with some of the Fifteen Virtues used for the ancient digimentals. Since we're sending out one Digidestined on his own, I'm glad he's closer to Tai's age than TK's as well… Right now we need a quick learner sensible enough to not take too many risks more than we need someone powerful enough to think they might be able to handle Millenniummon on their own."

* * *

Most humans would be startled by a Digimon appearing on their computer screen and calling out to them to touch the digivice, whatever a Digivice was. It was a relief that Ryo didn't demand an explanation, even though he was very confused. As soon as he understood what Agumon wanted and that the little green device that appeared was the digivice Agumon was talking about he touched it, which was nice of him. Also a relief when every second they were here was much longer in the Digital World.

What wasn't a relief was that they arrived in the middle of a forest, not Gennai's garden. Worse, Ryo was unconscious! Agumon tried to get him to wake up quick, so they could figure out where they were and try to get somewhere safe. If not File City, at least a hiding tree so it was safe to give Ryo a longer explanation and hope that Gennai would find them before Millenniummon did.

Agumon was kind of worried about that, after how good he was at tracking them down in his area of Spiral Mountain. At least this area still had tree cover? That hadn't protected them in Puppetmon's area, though…

When Ryo finally opened his eyes – blue – and stared up into Agumon's, _now_ he wanted to know who Agumon was. And where they were.

"I'm Agumon, you're Ryo: come on, I've been waiting for you to wake up!"

Ryo rubbed at his eyes, murmuring a couple of things, including Agumon's name, trying to figure out what was going on. "…is this a dream?"

Agumon tried to explain that it wasn't a dream, but Ryo didn't seem very awake as he blinked, looking around and trying to get his bearings. Was it late in the human world already?

"Weren't you in my computer?" Ryo remembered. "Agumon, right?"

Hmm? "Wasn't it your father's computer?"

"I'm allowed to use it!" the human said defensively. Oh? Agumon hadn't thought there was anything bad about humans using computers. Ryo seemed to agree with him that wasn't important, asking Agumon why he was here. "You said something about needing help?"

"It was supposed to all be over, and then there's Machinedramon and Chimeramon merging and the Digital World's time slipping around and now Devimon and Etemon are back and…!"

"Agumon!" Ryo said, interrupting him to get his attention. "Can you slow down?"

Right, he was babbling a little and Ryo wouldn't know who any of those Digimon were, Agumon thought, looking around, but there was too much to explain and they really did need to get moving. "Uh, the time in the network world slipped?" Izzy said something like that? "And something about another world? Anyway, Chimeramon and Machinedramon…"

The ground shook under their feet, and Agumon looked around frantically. He remembered the ground shaking under Machinedramon's footsteps, what if Millenniummon had found them?! It was almost a relief that the ground was only collapsing under them, but no, that wasn't very good at all.

Ryo yelped when he realized they were falling, but it sounded more like he was surprised than that he was afraid.

"Ow!" Agumon was the one to yelp when they hit the bottom. "Ryo?" he asked.

"I'm fine, but what on earth is going on…"

Ryo still didn't sound afraid, just really confused. Kind of like Izzy? Once he knew what was going on, then he'd know whether or not he was in danger and should be afraid, or if there was something he should be doing? Agumon was glad Ryo wasn't scared, or upset that he was lost, or frantic. Or really annoyed the way Mimi would be that Agumon wasn't hurrying up and explaining. He wasn't even glaring at Agumon, just looking around, touching the sides of the crack they were in to see how stable the soil was and looking up to see how hard it would be to climb out.

"This happened because the data's gotten all messed up. There have been a lot of earthquakes and floods. It's going to be awful if we can't stop it. I thought we'd stopped it for good last time, but…"

"Last time? The Odaiba Incident?" Ryo wondered aloud. "So… this is some kind of... digital dimension, and it was going haywire." That was what caused the visions in the sky, the natural disasters, the failed electronics. "You and your friends went on a quest and thought you'd put an end to it, but now the trouble's started up again?"

Agumon nodded. "That's it, you got it!"

Then Ryo tilted his head back, looking up at the sky framed by the walls of the ditch above them, and laughed. "Yeah. This is a dream. I must have fallen asleep reading the Odaiba Incident chat. Too many videoga-"

Both of them turned when they heard the soil starting to slide, but there wasn't a lot of room down here to avoid something as large as a Kuwagamon. Staring at it, Ryo didn't move fast enough to avoid being hit into a wall.

"…Ow." He said, less a cry of pain and more as though it meant something that he was in pain?

No time to figure out a strange human anymore! "Stay back: I'll protect you, Ryo!"

A Kuwagamon, just like the day Tai and the others had arrived! Agumon wasn't worried about the Betamon, but fighting a Champion when he couldn't digivolve and when he had a human to protect? At least Ryo had taken cover in the jagged earth and wasn't screaming or distracting Agumon with demands to know what was going on.

When it was over, Agumon turned around to see Ryo watching the Kuwagamon's data disperse.

"…What was that just now?" Ryo asked when he felt Agumon's gaze, still frowning at where the battle took place, trying to figure this out.

"Come on, we have to find the village! Gennai can explain everything to you there!"

The promise that there would be an explanation seemed to be enough for Ryo. His eyes darted around as he followed Agumon, examining the forest around them. Observing it? Looking for more attackers? He wasn't saying all of his observations aloud like Izzy did sometimes, which was good, they needed to not attract attention.

Agumon didn't know if Ryo still thought this was a dream, but at least he was taking the danger seriously.

It was a huge relief to get to the top of a hill and see through a clearing that the town was over that way. Otherwise, he might have had to ask Ryo to climb a tree like Tai and Sora did. Agumon could, but with his claws he'd really damage the tree and it would make more noise!

When they reached the town and Ryo saw the Digimon, he was cautious after being attacked by Digimon, but didn't hesitate to follow Agumon into town. He tensed but didn't back away, not even when a Demimeramon floated across the street towards them and called to them, waving. "You must be Ryo! We've been waiting for you. Gennai said you'd come to help us!"

"You look tired, Agumon," said a ToyAgumon. Agumon was glad he hadn't digivolved into that form: they were really fragile and it would be harder to protect Tai. "You should get some rest. Now there's another Digidestined here, I'm sure everything will be okay!"

Agumon nodded. "Thank you!" The other Digimon knew he was worried about Tai: it was nice of them to reassure him.

"Is it true he doesn't have a Protector?" asked another Digimon. Hopefully? Why would they want Ryo to not have… Oh, they were hoping Ryo was _their_ human.

"We have to get to Gennai's!" Agumon called out, so everyone would hear and get them room. "Talk to Mojyamon!"

A number of them turned away, heading towards the fields where the militia was training, or towards other places in town to spread the news.

Gennai was already waiting outside his house when they got there. "Thank you for coming, Chosen Child," he said, bowing over his cane.

"You're human? Did you get called to this world too?"

"Oh, no, I'm neither human nor inhuman." Gennai smiled. "I'm Super Gramps!"

Ryo stared at him for a moment before giving up and letting out a laugh that sounded almost doubtful, because that was absurd but… was it really okay to be laughing, or making jokes?

"I'm sure you want a better explanation than what Agumon gave you," Gennai said, a little more seriously. "Come inside," he waved Ryo forward.

Ryo seemed a little less on-edge once they were away from the crowd of possibly-hostile Digimon.

Once they'd sat down Gennai explained, with Agumon chiming in. It really wasn't fair that they had to fight all those Digimon all over again! Myotismon died in the real world, too, so he shouldn't ever have been able to get to the Digital World to come back to life if it weren't for Millenniummon! It really wasn't fair that he had come back to life and Wizardmon hadn't.

Ryo listened to their explanation without asking questions, just watching them. Finally, Agumon asked Ryo what he was going to do.

"So: I'm a substitute hero, that's why they said 'another' Digidestined," Ryo summed up instead of answering Agumon's question. "A Digimon from the future and a dangerous enemy called Machinedramon fused into Millenniummon, and while most of the Digimon who showed up now you've beaten before, no one's beaten Millenniummon, and you don't have much clue how to fight him. He's got Tai and the others, and Agumon wanted my help to save them."

Ryo looked doubtful: did he still think this was a dream?

"Ryo, please help us!" Agumon begged.

"But how am I going to defeat someone who managed to take down the people who stopped the Odaiba Incident?" Ryo asked them.

Not 'I can't do this' or 'I want to go home' or 'I didn't ask to get dragged into this' or 'there's no way' but 'I certainly hope you guys have thought this through.' The question as Ryo saw it wasn't whether or not he was going to try to help Agumon, but how?

Agumon had an idea. "We can gather more Digimon to help!" If they had more Digimon with more abilities he knew there would be something that would help, and that way they might even find Ryo's partner!

"Millenniummon is gathering together brainwashed Digimon into armies," Gennai told him. "If you can go to those bases and use the power of the digivice to free those forces, that would weaken him as it strengthens our defenses."

Ryo nodded, clearly thinking that sounded like a plan.

"If we fight him alone, Ryo, we won't stand a chance," Agumon said, remembering what Gennai said, about how Ryo would need to be cautious. "But if we get other Digimon to help, there's a lot more chance we can win, and once we free the others then they can help too!"

"Mojyamon has set up a cave near the village as a training ground for Shurimon and the other Digimon who have volunteered to sneak into one of Millenniummon's bases to gather intelligence and search for the Digidestined," Gennai told him. "I believe it's getting late in Japan, so you might want to rest for a bit first, but when you wake up that might be a good place to start."

Agumon tensed. "It's not like the cave where he sent me and Tai to train, right?"

"That was an old training ground for the ancient warriors who fought the Dark Ocean and needed to learn how to face something like its pull and overcome it under controlled circumstances," Gennai said. "Unless you miss Tai so much you go through a dark digivolution, I don't think there'll be a need for either of you to undergo that training. Millenniummon's control is control, not the Dark Ocean's corrosion. Digimon have used that cave for soul-searching and spiritual training, so the Order administrated it until our numbers grew too few and we had to retreat to the temples whose locations weren't known to pilgrims." Gennai's hand went to the necklace of dogtags around his neck. "Piximon helped me put up that barrier with the power of the crests, and I stayed there while we searched for Gatomon's egg. It was the power of the crests that gave life to the desert and grew that jungle, but the crests had to be kept outside the barrier so that whenever your partners came to the Digital World and they began to resonate with them the power surges didn't fry the barrier. I used a few more of the crests to fuel safe havens and transportation between the Oasis and File Island, since I had to go there to check on your eggs. Fortunately I was right that you would be needles in a haystack on File Island, with Elecmon and Leomon to keep an eye on you…"

Ryo suppressed a yawn.

"Oh, yes, human children need more sleep than we do, especially old men like me," Gennai remembered. "I didn't have enough bedrooms for all of the Digidestined to have their own rooms, so they and their partners have been spreading out futons in some of the rooms next to the courtyard. Since there's only one of you, would you like to be in the boys' room with Agumon, or do you want your own room so you can have a little privacy while you settle in?"

He nodded. "That would be great, thanks."

Gennai pushed himself up. "Well, let me show to your room, then."

Agumon went out into the garden. Gennai's new house wasn't underwater, but there were still fish in the little stream.

Watching them, he wondered if Gomamon was doing okay. He hoped so.

"So," Gennai said, coming out onto the patio around the courtyard once Ryo was settled. "What do you think of Ryo?"

"He's a little like Izzy, and a little like Joe, but the two of them get excited easily."

"Yes… He's a very practical boy. I pretended to be a little infirm for a moment there, and I saw him keeping an eye on me, but he didn't want to be rude enough to imply I needed help," Gennai said thoughtfully. "His crest certainly isn't Wishes, and I doubt it's Pride. Sometimes a crest can backfire on the one who holds that power, but it's not a matter of lacking faith in himself. He cares about others and wants to help them, but when we explained what Millenniummon was doing to Digimon, his focus wasn't how someone could do such horrible things and if the Digimon would be alright, but how to _stop_ him from hurting anyone else. He doesn't lack compassion, but his crest isn't Kindness. In the Digital World, the power of programs is supposed to be reserved for the Gods and their servants, but I really have no idea what sort of behavior to expect from the Child of Miracles or Destiny. Ryo is goal-oriented, but you're certainly not going to know if someone's crest is _Tenacity_ after only a day."

Agumon was trying and failing to keep track of the number of crests on his claws. Gennai chuckled. "The last is Darkness. It's a possibility, but like Miracles and Destiny I wouldn't know how to start figuring out what kind of character traits are associated with that virtue. Humility, perhaps? Kari and TK certainly aren't a thing like how I thought they'd be, and that's all to the good, I think."

"Darkness?" Agumon asked.

"The Digital World is ancient, and not all the threats who have attacked it are Dark Digimon," Gennai reminded him. "Virus-types can be a little greedy, and sometimes that makes them far too willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want, but Vaccine-types… their flaw is that they can value life too little. Their own and sometimes those of others as well... I doubt that Angemon realized how much it would hurt the Child of Hope to watch him die. I find myself wondering if the Child of Light's poor health has some relation to her crest: her spirit may not be anchored as firmly to her body as it should be, for her sake..."

"So… what's the weakness of data types?" Agumon wondered. He was a data-type, and he didn't want some flaw he had to hurt Tai.

Gennai chuckled again. "Don't worry, Agumon: no one's going to accuse you of being overly passive, or just standing by while other Digimon get hurt because you don't care enough to get involved."

"That's a relief," Agumon said. "I won't give up: I'll do whatever it takes to save Tai!"

"That's good to hear," Gennai said. "We'll all be counting on you, Agumon. If Tai gave you his digivice, then he must have guessed that you were being rescued. I'm sure the Child of Courage won't be afraid as long as he knows you're safe and sound."

"Tai is… Tai." Agumon leaned towards him. "Gennai, I don't know if I ever thanked you. The others were talking about it, but you saved my egg from the Dark Masters. It's because of you that I got to meet Tai."

"There's no need to thank me, Agumon. Just doing my job." Gennai still seemed pleased. "Ah yes, Mojyamon and I were just talking about something like that," he remembered. "Mojyamon seems to think that meeting his partner isn't all that appealing a prospect. What do you… Ah, I see by the way you're shaking your head that you don't agree."

"He's not perfect, but he's perfect?" That time, when Tai stuffed him trying to make him stronger and _he almost hurt Tai_ still made him shudder. "I'm not perfect either. Like he's just right. He's perfectly _Tai._ He's evolved, I mean grown up. We both have, but he's still _Tai_ , the way even when I'm not Agumon I'm still Tai's partner. I'm trying to get stronger for him, and he's becoming better for me. When I first saw him, I went, 'Yay, Tai!'" Agumon told Gennai, throwing up his hands. "Tai said that not all humans were nice just like not all Digimon were like me, that if I talked to strangers they might cut me up, but that was because they might think I was an alien like Izzy did and might attack people? Even if Piximon's partner is that kind of human, I know they won't hurt him, not on purpose. It didn't feel very good to be stuffed that full," Agumon said, putting a claw over his belly and wincing at the memory, "but Tai did it because he thought it would help me protect everyone. Tai… he's perfect _for me_."

" _Just for me_ ," Agumon thought, feeling warm. Destiny meant that Tai was _Agumon's_ , and that was worth all the waiting in the world. "I know that I have to protect him to save the Digital World and it's important to everyone, but I'd protect him no matter what. He's my very own Tai."

"Out of all the Digimon in the Digital World, _you_ are the one who is perfect for Tai." Gennai smiled, clearly touched and happy for Agumon. That was a relief: Agumon had wanted to thank Gennai, not remind him how sad it was that Gennai would never have his very own Tai. "Try not to worry too much, Agumon. Have faith that you'll be able to save him. The fact you're Tai's partner proves that you're the best Digimon for the job."

* * *

 _I've seen that crest translated as Crest of Desire and Crest of Passion. Since I see it as Davis' crest because of Davis' arc and his ability, given 02 I went with Crest of Wishes._

 _In_ Digimon Adventure _, we're shown Joe and Mimi's crest powers breaking them out of Myotismon's spells the way Davis gets broken out of Malomyotismon's Lotus Eater spell. The physical crests only focus and store power: the power itself comes from the Digidestined, which is kind of important at the end of Adventure. Ken is also able to use his crest power while nowhere near the Crest of Kindness.  
_

 _The end of 02 is_ far _from the first time Myotismon got bitch-slapped by the fact that the Digidestined are more than just digivolution batteries._ _Unfortunately, 02's writers sucked at that point, so something that'd already happened half a dozen times in that continuity came across as a Deus Ex Machina._

 _I'm kind of liking the idea that Piximon is Sora's mom's partner, because Biyomon is the one who admires him and he's pink. Also Sora's mom is the one who disguises them as Bakemon to rescue Sora, and since a lot of Piximon's skills involve invisibility and misdirection?_

 _Also I remember being told that there was a list of things, including tea and tea ceremonies, that were considered equivalent to martial arts, possibly in the search for mental and physical perfection in the craft? Flower arranging is the kind of traditional art involving discipline that might be practiced as one of those, and Piximon and Sora's mother are both the inheritors of ancient styles and traditions._

 _Which brings to mind the idea of_ Biyomon _being the one to learn flower arranging from Sora's mom and inherit the family school._

 _In any case, Sora's mother is aware of Digimon, and since the Crest of Love in Adventure is specifically discussed as Parent-Child love, or_ storge _, Sora definitely inherited her protectiveness from her mother. Having an unusually powerful partner now emotionally invested in the Digital World is how I'm justifying Piximon/Mojyamon keeping enough knowledge of his skills that replacing the rest is a matter of brushing up in Gennai's library and training, not to mention a lot of personal memories relative to Digimon during the time dilation._

 _Piximon was an ultimate, which are rare in the Adventure Digital World, and the games establish that there are a lot of Digimon who are never going to get to rookie, forget ultimate, which explains Apocalymon's existence and also why the Pagumon village took TK's partner being able to digivolve so personally._

 _I'm also fond of the idea that Wizardmon is Matt's dad's partner, since that way he can go up and visit him on lunch breaks and such._


End file.
